Epidemics of infectious diseases came and went in early Australian history – smallpox, measles, the plague, Asiatic and Spanish flu – but typhoid was considered endemic. Outbreaks in the goldfields were inevitable, with overcrowding, no sanitation, a limited water supply and co-existing gold fever. It tended to occur in healthy young men and showed noContinue reading “Typhoid terrorised the nation”
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Drowned learning to swim
The evening of February 18, 1909, a number of women and children went to one of the Great Cobar mine tanks to “bathe’’, something they enjoyed regularly. Cobar, in mid central New South Wales, was a stronghold of copper and gold mines, starting from the 1870s. By 1909, the hot, dry town had hit itsContinue reading “Drowned learning to swim”
Way to go Australia 